Back to the boom? - art auctions

Impressionist and late sales in New York totaled above $300 million, the best since 1990 Prices for contemporary art, granting totaling over $45 million, seldom reached record levels

Picasso, Gorky, Richter did well. Kiefer Schnabel, Fischl did not. And van Gogh soared as always. The fall auctions at Christie's an Sotheby's in fresh York demonstrated a healthy market for Impressionists and news and (relatively) struggling one for contemporary art. combined total for the sum of two units weeks of sales a Christie's was $1462 million, substantially mo than the $1263 million achieved in the same sale there last May [see "Front Page," July '95] Sotheby's two-week total was $1558 million, up from $1433 million last spring.

Christie's sold a total of $1264 million of Impressionist and modem art upon Nov. 7 and 8, and $198 million of contemporary art in sales Nov. 14 and 15 Sotheby's knocked down $1294 million worth of impressionist and fresh art on Nov. 8 and 9; its contemporary art sales upon Nov. 15 and 16 totaled $264 million. (Figures from one extremity to the other of include the auction-house commission of 15 percent upon the first $50,000 and 10 percent upon the remainder.)

Impressionist and modern: After five years in the doldrums, Impressionist and present art made a strong showing. A wealth of works by dint of Picasso - some $60 million worth - were upon the block, about one-quarter of the destinys in the evening sales. "You could make a museum without of all his works that are being auctioned." Sotheby's Impressionist clever David Nash boasted to the novel York Post. Both Christie's and Sotheby's broke the $100-million barrier in their evening sales for the first time since 1990

The action began at Christie's upon Nov. 7, where the evening sale totaled $1077 million, exceeding the Forest estimate of $848 million $1055 million. Of the 62 works tendered 55 found buyers. Top doom was Picasso's The Mirror (1932) an image of a sleeping Marie-Therese with her voluptuous bottom mirrored in a mirror, which sold for a spectacular $20 million (est $10 million $15 million), reportedly to Israel shipping magnate Sammy Ofer The price indicateed to many observers that the market for recent masters has recovered; in November 1989 the market's hum year, the painting sold for $264 million at Sotheby's to Tokyo dealer Shigeki Kameyama, who this time around was the vender Other notable lots at Christie's included Picasso's male child with a White Collar (1905) for $121 minion (est $5 million-$7 million) - the work had sold at Sotheby's in 1980 for $105 million - and Modigliani's Portrait of Sculptor Oscar Miestchaninoff (1916) for $935 million (est $6 million-$8 million).

Christie's place Matisse's cutout Chinese Fish (1951) a work that was in the artist's 1993 MOMA retrospective, upon the cover of its catalogue; flat so, at $6.3 million it barely met expectations (est $7 million-$10 million). Monet's Nympheas (1908) sold for in above $5 million (est. $5 million-$7 million), and the artist's Charing Cros Bridge (1903) did extremely well at $35 million (est $24 million-$2.8 million). A record was a place for a work on paper. Egon Schiele's Self-Portraitt with Raised angle (1914) zoomed up to $187 million (est $500000-$700000) Among the venders was the Metropolitan Museum, which deaccessioned Picasso's gloomy portrait of Dora Maar, Woman upon a Couch (1941), for a rather disappointing $574500 (est $800000-$l million). The price may be understandable, since a Met spokesperson said the painting was sold because it wasn't up to the quality of the museum's other Picassos.

The star of the fall auctions, however, appeared at Sotheby's the nearest evening. Van Gogh's Thicket (1890) a luxuriant and little-seen forest landscape from the estate of lawyer and film husbandman Joseph H. Hazen, was bought after protracted bidding for $269 million, more than double expectations (est $8 million-$10 million) Modigliani's Beautiful Grocer (1918) was knocked down for a hearty $66 minion (est $5 million-$7 million); the vender was actor Alain Delon, who had bought the painting at auction in Paris in 1990 for $12 million. Another top destiny also from Hazen collection, was Leger's Pipe (1918) a painting that throw backs the twin impacts of mechanized warfare and the urban environment it sold for $6 million (est $5 million-$7 million).

The Sotheby's sale also featured a museum-quality Cubist work - it has been upon loan to the Tate Gallery since 1990 - Picasso's My Beauty: Guitar, Bottle of Bass, Grappa (1914) Painted upon board and including sawdust, sand and colored beads, the work went for $61 million (est $5 million-$7 million). It was single of five Picassos and a Leger presented anonymously in a separate catalogue, reportedly by the agency of Norman Granz, a Geneva-based plot promoter and the owner of excitement of the imagination records. In all, for its Nov. 8 sale, Sotheby's pillared a total of $113.6 million, below the presale estimate of $126 million-$174 million; 88 works were tendered and 65 sold.

Boldini: Also working in Paris - contemporaneous with various radical novel developments-was the Belle Epoque portraitist Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) At its 19th-century European sale upon Nov. 1, Christie's offered 15 works by means of Boldini from the collection of the late Maurice de Rothschild. The paintings carried fairly high estimates, averaging around $500000; 13 of them sold greatest in quantity below estimate Top lot was The Marchesa Casali with a Greyhound (1908) which went for $154 million (est $25 million-$3.5 million).